Blue Jeans

The word "jeans" comes from the French phrase bleu de Gênes, literally the blue of Genoa.
Jeans fabric, or denim, originated independently in two places: the French town of Nîmes, to which 'denim' owes its name; and in India, where trousers made of denim material were worn by the sailors of Dhunga, which came to be known as dungarees.
At the same time, denim trousers were made in Chieri, a town near Turin (Italy), during the Renaissance, and were popularised in the 19th century. These trousers were sold through the harbour of Genoa, which was the capital of the independent Republic of Genoa which was long an important naval and trading power. Early examples of trousers were made for the Genoese Navy, which required all-purpose pants for its sailors. They required pants that could be wet or dry, the legs of which could be worn while swabbing the deck. These were laundered by dragging them in nets behind the ship, and the sea water and sun would gradually bleach them to white. They were worn by Genoan sailors and stevedores in France.Traditionally, jeans are dyed to a blue color using indigo dye. Approximately 20 million tons of indigo are produced annually for this purpose, though only a few grams of the dye are required for each pair of trousers.

Jeans can be worn loosely or snugly. Historic photographs indicate that in the decades before they became a staple of fashion, jeans generally fit quite loosely, much like a pair of bib overalls without the bib. Indeed, until 1960, Levi Strauss denominated its flagship product "waist overalls" rather than "jeans".

By: Nitti*